Chapter 954: The Third Goal! Sealing the Deal?!

Honestly, no one expected Morita to send the ball there.

After all, the boy had done all the flashy things alone, and everyone thought that he would just complete the sequence by executing everything by himself.

Hell, even if he passed the ball, they all would think that the target would be Hoppe, the one who was on fire with four goals in two games at this point. That was definitely the most logical thing to do for the midfielder.

However, that was the beauty of this play.

In all honesty, this was one of the schemes that gave Schalke a lot of goals this season. When Morita held the ball and forced all the eyes on him, the two wingers would disappear into the shadows, just for them to pop up once again in the channel area to receive Morita’s through ball.

At this point, there was no way the other teams in the league didn’t know about it. However, that didn’t mean they could stop this scheme, at least not that easily.

After all, Morita carried the gravity that would drag everyone on his side, and even though they all knew that the ball would be passed, they didn’t dare to let him carry further, believing that Morita himself also had the capability to shoot on his own.

This was also exactly what happened in this game, and as a result, the defense split in that second, and that was the moment that Higo had been waiting for.

Thud!

"Yes, Morita! I know the ball will be there!" Benito Raman, who cut diagonally through the penalty box, grinned when the ball popped in front of him.

In that exact second, he didn’t wait for too long, having his eyes on the area between the goalkeeper’s legs before he whacked the ball as hard as he could, not giving anyone a chance to stop him first.

BAM!

The goalkeeper reacted, stumbling back a little. Unfortunately, the ball got through his legs first before his right foot was able to stop it, and in the next second, he could only watch helplessly as, once again, the ball went into the back of his net.

"OH! What a strike, Beni!"

"Hahaha! Nice pass as well, Morita!"

The moment the ball went in, the Belgian winger grinned widely, hugging Morita with great enthusiasm.

"Fuck, Morita! Playing with you is so comfortable! How could you always manage to find me?!" He shook his head in disbelief. "If you have the chance later, make sure you find me again, okay?" He joked around.

"Hey, hey! That’s not fair, Beni!" Fabian came with a scowl. "You have already scored one! It is time for me to receive his pass, okay?!"

"Um... Guys, in case you forget, I am the striker here, you know? He should pass the ball to me first before anyone else..." Hoppe also tried to make his case here.

The other Schalke players just shook their heads in exasperation as they slapped Morita on the back of his head for that assist.

Honestly, it was ridiculous to see all the forwards fighting to be the one who would receive Morita’s pass, but it was indeed that good that anyone who managed to get it would have a big chance to score an easy goal for the team.

That was probably the best thing about having him as a teammate, and also the worst thing for any other team to have the boy as the opponent.

Morita himself grinned widely, but other than that, the calmness was still there. He had already reached the point that any ordinary praise wouldn’t move him, exactly the same as when he was in high school and was considered one of the best in the game.

Now, though, after the team led the game with three goals, Frohling also decided to slow down, feeling satisfied with the result.

Not wanting to push his luck further and put the players at unnecessary risk, he started to replace some of his key players to give them some rest.

Morita was off five minutes after the third goal, being replaced by Jonas Hofmann. Then, in the 60th minute, Hoppe followed, being replaced by Amine Harit.

At this point, everyone knew that Schalke was already content with the result, not going to push further for the fourth goal or even more.

This gave K?ln a chance to fight back, at least to steal a goal from this stadium. Unfortunately, for a team that was weak offensively, this was basically a mission impossible, something that couldn’t just be achieved by hard work.

They tried their best to push their luck, from left to right, from a through ball to a direct one straight to the penalty box, and yet, none of them managed to get close enough to Higo.

No, all of their efforts always stopped straight in either the defenders or even Jonas Hofmann.

It seemed that the defensive midfielder was so eager to showcase his talent after being sidelined this year, and whenever he had a chance, the boy would always go to the pitch with a desperate do-or-die mentality to kill all of his opponents.

K?ln also tried another method, like individual skill to create some space and even desperate long shots that were less effective than they should be.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t really get a hang of it, and in the end, even if the ball managed to get closer to the box, Higo was still there to cover the whole ground, killing all the momentum that the away team wanted to create.

Schalke was also in the same boat, though.

Without Morita and Hoppe, even if they wanted to score more goals, they didn’t have the necessary force to drive them to the dreamland.

All of their efforts were futile, just giving K?ln’s goalkeeper a chance to look better after conceding three goals today.

In the end, the game fell into a stagnancy until the very last second, and once the referee saw the time was up on his watch...

FWEEE! FWEEE! FWEEE!

The whistle was blown, ending the game with Schalke continuing their momentum with a win.